In order to facilitate scientific research and academic exchange on high-performance computing (HPC) in Taiwan as well as to promote its HPC and latest value-added services, the NCHC hosted the 2011 NCHC HPC Conference on November 24th, 2011. During the event, more than 200 scholars and veteran researchers shared their latest HPC research results and technologies. The conference also featured an HPC research results poster competition in which there were a total of 62 entries.

■HPC scholars and veteran researchers including Director Kuo-ning Chiang of the NCHC (center front row), Academician Ming-chang Lin of Academia Sinica (fifth from right front row), Professor Jenn-kang Hwang, Dean of College of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University (fourth from left front row), and Professor Jang-yu Hsu, Chief Judge of the contest (third from left front row).

The NCHC's Director Chiang was the first to speak as he welcomed the conference attendees. During the opening speech, he said that the NCHC is planning a new application process called the “NCHC Computation Challenge Program” (NCCP) that will offer preferential service rates to the NCHC's HPC users. He went on to say that the NCHC hopes to use NCCP to drive domestic research towards larger scale projects as well as to stronger international competiveness, and that the NCHC will continue offering its HPC networking and storage users the latest equipment and know-how. The NCHC's Director Chiang also stated that he hoped that the NCHC's HPC services would help researchers advance and discover new chemical and/or physical properties, and that the use of HPC would further expand to include the fields of biology, cultural creation, and economics.

Dean Jenn-kang Hwang from the College of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University, was invited to deliver a special talk entitled “Computational Biology and Biology.” With the explosive advances in molecular biology technologies, computational biology has generated an extremely large volume of data as well as many computationally complex questions that can only be addressed by HPC. Dean Hwang explained this profound subject in simple language so that the conference attendees could grasp the recent development and trends in this new area of study.

■Dean Jenn-kang Hwang of the College of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University, delivers his special talk entitled “Computational Biology and Biology.”

After Dean Hwang's special lecture, the conference was split into three concurrent sessions in Physics, Chemistry, and Engineering, each with four preeminent panelists sharing their research projects and leading the discussions. In the afternoon sessions, the NCHC introduced its services, including its new Windrider HPC services, software service platforms, free software used to create cloud computing environments, the NCHC's latest cloud service – Formosa IaaS, and animation rendering farm services. In the near future, the NCHC also hopes to provide more diverse HPC services to domestic industrial, academic, and research fields.

■Professor Guang-cherng Hsu from National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences leads the Engineering session

There were a total of 62 research result posters entries in this year’s poster contest. This was the first time that the posters were both evaluated and judged on site and where the participants had to present their research results within an allotted amount of time. The competition was judged by a seven scholar panel that included Professor Jang-yu Hsu (Chief Judge, National Cheng Kung University), Professor Yang-yao Niu (Chung Hua University), Professor Shin-jye Liang (National Taiwan Ocean University), Professor Yu-fan Liu (Chung Shan Medical University), Dr. Jerry Chang (NCHC), Dr. Heng-chuan Kang (NCHC), and Dr. Jian-ming Lu (NCHC). The competition resulted in the awarding one "Best" poster, three "Superior" posters, and seven "Excellent" poster awards.

■The judges are evaluating the posters.

The "Best" poster award was awarded to Hsiao-chieh Chi of National Tsing Hua University. The Three "Superior" poster awards were awarded to Hsin-jui Lin of National Taiwan University, Cheng-lun Yu of National Tsing Hua University, and Chih-jung Huang of National Cheng Kung University. The Seven "Excellent" poster awards were awarded to Chuan-chieh Liao of National Tsing Hua University, Cheng-chin Su of National Chiao Tung University, Chao-ping Hou of National Defense University, Chien-chou Weng of National Taiwan University, Tzu-ching Shih of China Medical University, Pai-liang Liu of National Chung Hsing University, and Wen-cheng Huang of National Sun Yat-Sen University. Additionally, in appreciation of domestic scholars for their support over the years, the NCHC issued a special award for "Best References" to Professor Ching-liang Dai of National Chung Hsing University for his accumulation of 73 references over the past three years. The conference drew to a warm and cheerful end with participants looking forward to next year’s meeting.